If Senate Democrats win control of the chamber after the November election, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., could make history in more than one way.
Politico reports that if Schumer is elevated to Senate majority leader, he would be the first Jewish Senate majority leader and the first New Yorker to hold the position.
Schumer, who has served in Congress for almost four decades, could also make history if he decides to end the legislative filibuster.
It would be both a strategic and defining move that would help push his agenda through the Senate, according to Politico.
Schumer has said “nothing is off the table” when it comes to possibly eliminating the practice.
In discussing his transformation from when he first ran for office in the House in 1980 as a Reagan-era liberal to the “law-and-order Democrat platform he exuded during his 1998 Senate run, compared to how he makes decisions now, he said the problems that existed then “are different than the problems that exist today.”
He said his views have changed to reflect a different Democratic Party.
“A good elected official looks at the needs of the people he or she represents and does everything he or she can to help solve those needs, and the world changes,” Schumer told Politico. “And the problems that existed, say, in the '90s, are different than the problems that exist today.”
He said his plans for the next Congress include: “income and wealth inequality, climate [change], racial justice, healthcare, and improving our democracy,” along with the ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The topics are ones favored by many progressive lawmakers, according to Politico.
As Senate minority leader, Schumer has worked to keep Senate Democrats united on key issues. Schumer has held the post since 2016. He has led his party’s lawmakers through several government shutdowns and controversies like Trump’s impeachment trial.
He keeps the lines of communication open with his fellow senators, even those who may have a different stance on a topic. He calls as many as 15 to 20 Democrats a day, according to Politico. He also reaches out to his predecessor Sen. Harry Reid, at least once a week. Politico reports the former lawmaker is No. 23 on Schumer’s speed dial.
“Chuck Schumer has an impossibly difficult job, and he does it extremely well,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said in a statement. “In a caucus with a very wide range of political views, Chuck has maintained strong party unity and has brought the caucus together in a progressive way to take on Trump and the right-wing extremism of the Republican Party.”
But he hasn’t always been supported by more progressive members of the party. Schumer voted for the Iraq War in 2003 and against gay marriage as a House member in 1996. He flipped his stance over a decade later as New York Democrats changed their position on the topic of gay marriage, according to Politico.
“He doesn’t have any core beliefs or core policy views,” Waleed Shahid, communications director for Justice Democrats, said of Schumer. “Progressives are definitely wary of him and no one considers him a progressive. But that said, he has been making concessions and moving because he knows that’s where the party is going, especially in a state as blue as New York.”
But Schumer said he doesn’t feel threatened by the more progressive members of his party.
“Look, throughout my career, I do the job for my constituents and for my country and it always works out,” Schumer said when asked of possibly being challenged by a progressive in 2022.
“In almost all of my career, even when I started in the New York State Assembly, I haven’t had a grand plan like, ‘I’m going to be here 10 years from now, here in 20 years.’ I do my job well and then the next thing sort of falls into place,” Schumer told Politico.
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